Published: March 02, 2007 08:57 am            

Media will tour Wolf Creek Dam

Reporters are going to see for themselves the condition of Wolf Creek Dam and view firsthand the repair work now underway.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Nashville District, will hold a Media Day at Wolf Creek Dam and Powerhouse in Russell County on March 8. A reporter/photographer from the Commonwealth Journal will be present during the event.

Steven C. Foshee, public affairs official at the Corps’ Nashville Division office, said media representatives will have an opportunity to see Wolf Creek Dam inside and out, including the earthen embankment and powerhouse.

Because of limited space within some areas inside the dam, a lack of time, and safety and security issues, the tour of grouting procedures inside the dam will be coordinated as a media pool, Foshee said. The pool will be limited to reporters, photographers, and other journalists selected by their peers.

Foshee said officials will try to answer questions from the media representatives concerning the recent announcement to lower the level of Lake Cumberland to 680 feet above sea level to relieve pressure on the dam.

The lower level will be maintained for the remainder of this year, including the summer vacation season when the lake normally is some 40 feet higher. However, the Corps and tourism promoters point out that Lake Cumberland still is about 37,000 acres larger than nearby Dale Hollow Lake. Work is underway to extend as many boat ramps as possible to provide access to the diminished water level.

The lake level has been lower than it is now. On February 9, 1977 during the period when an initial diaphragm was being inserted in the dam, the water level was 677.85 feet above sea level. The level at 6 a.m. Thursday was 681.14, more than 3 feet higher than that day 30 years ago.

When the lake was so low in 1977 this area was in the grips of record-breaking cold. January and February 1977 were two of the coldest months in recorded weather history in Kentucky. Lake Cumberland was frozen a foot thick, bank to bank, and cars and trucks drove out on the ice.

This is the second time that Wolf Creek Dam has developed serious leaks. During the late 1960s, sinkholes developed on the downstream side of the dam and muddy water was observed in the tailrace. A rehabilitation project lasting more than a decade included grouting and a concrete diaphragm through the earthen section of the dam.

Practically all dams have some leakage, but pressure instruments and wet spots warned the Corps early in 2005 that Wolf Creek Dam was leaking again at a disturbing rate. A $309 million rehabilitation of the dam was announced in August 2005. The lake was lowered 43 feet below the tree line this past January to relieve pressure on the structure, classified as “high risk” of failure by independent studies.

The Corps said recently it will try to complete the rehabilitation of the dam in five years instead of the seven-year period originally announced. The work includes another concrete diaphragm extending 100 feet into the bedrock, about 75 feet deeper than the first diaphragm. An accelerated grouting program, forcing liquid concrete into cavities in the dam, got underway in December.

Wolf Creek Dam, supporting U.S. 127 across its top, is a landmark. The lake, averaging 90 feet deep at normal summer pool, is a scenic wonder creating more than 1,200 miles of shoreline between Jamestown and Corbin. Before the drawdown, the lake spread across 65,000 acres with hundreds of fingers reaching into secluded coves. The majestic body of water is a houseboat lover’s dream.

For more than a half century, Lake Cumberland has been the foundation of a healthy economy in Pulaski County and five or six other counties in the area. It has changed the nature of how business is done in this part of Kentucky.

Up until about 1950, Somerset’s economy was built around the railroad shops at Ferguson where 600 men had good-paying jobs. The advent of diesel engines to pull trains forced closure of the shops where railroad steam engines were repaired. The evolution in railroading painted a bleak picture for the future as far as the local economy was concerned.

Then, Lake Cumberland, the largest man-made lake east of the Mississippi River, became a reality as the result of an authorization set forth in the Flood Control Act of 1938. Motive for construction of the 258-foot-high Wolf Creek Dam was primarily flood control for the oft-flooding Cumberland River, and hydroelectric power production. Recreational activities and water supply were secondary considerations.

Lake Cumberland is currently the sole water supply for 11 communities, including Somerset. Its water, at the rate of 150,000 gallons a minute, cools coal-fired generators at John Sherman Cooper Power Station. The Burnside generating plant produces enough electricity to power 31 cities the size of Somerset.

Wolf Creek Dam was built by S.A. Healy Company of White Plains, New York and six generators were installed by E.J. Albright Company at a total cost of $80.4 million. The original contract was let in 1941 and the War Production Board stopped construction in 1943. Work resumed after World War II and the dam was completed in December 1950.

The lake is a bivouac for the “Ohio Navy,” a group of hearty factory workers and their bosses, most with kinsfolk here, seeking relief from sun-baked streets in northern cities. Pulling a boat behind every car, admirals and sailors swarm to the lake on weekends and vacations during the summer. They eat at local restaurants, buy gasoline at service stations and visit local stores.

As a result, Somerset and many other communities along the lake have been “on the grow” for the past half century. Visitors currently generate about $150 million a year in Lake Cumberland Country.

        

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